Baby #8 on the Way?! Faith, Family & Advent Reflections (Ken & Janelle)

Welcome back to our Advent series! Today, on this Monday of the fourth week of Advent, Ken and Janelle share their reflections inspired by St. Alphonsus Liguori's daily sermons. Join us for this heartfelt discussion as we dive deep into the beauty of God’s love, the call to religious life, and the joy of family as we prepare for Christmas.

Transcript

welcome back we're so happy to have you here this Monday of the fourth week of Advent and thank you for joining with us just a heads up this is the last video of the Advent series that Janelle and I will do to together tomorrow there's one more video coming on Christmas Eve but we're going to continue to sharing with you what set out T us and Y from St Alphonsus the gory's daily sermons but this morning before we get there Janelle shared something interesting with me what did I share with you this morning that I thought the baby was is coming yes yeah that's right I was a little bit startled cuz I was having a few contractions a few contractions and look at that and you showed up to do a video anyways well I was like we got to get this video done cuz I don't know when this baby's coming so anyhow so at this time of recording I'm almost 37 weeks pregnant so the baby can come any time now and uh yeah so we got to get our work done so keep keep keep us in your prayers and just a heads up we'll be taking a little bit of time off after baby comes we're not sure when our next video will be it'll be in January mid January uh second week or third week we're not sure because of our family situation going on right now so when we read the uh St Alphonsus is readings today I mean Janelle and I really have two different streams of thought it's true I like to focus on different things other than what Ken stands out to Ken so you go first oh sure okay so what always stands out to me is when he speaks about the religious life I just he makes it like it's almost like he romanticizes it and I just find it so um appealing in many ways maybe it's because I feel like my life is feels very far from that it's it's like you missed your call you're stuck with me no no no but he does make it seem really appealing and almost like a superior way of living you know he talks about how like why would one not want to live in the under the the home of Jesus like to be in Christ's presence where the Tabernacle is always there like because you know for a lay person the only time that we would maybe get to go to visit Christ as if we make a trip to the church and we go and see him there like we don't have access to um the Eucharist as freely as um a religious religious would and so he he goes on to talk about how um there's Temptations for novices to leave and one of The Temptations he draws um our attention to is our affection towards our family and our friends and it kind of made me think about you know young people nowadays and how it's possible like that we can be so entrenched in our in our community life and we wouldn't want to leave that we wouldn't want to depart from that and maybe that could in some ways maybe um prevent us from really hearing the call of Christ in our life and so like I know myself as a young adult there was a time a period in my life where I really did seek out the the of religious life and I remember a friend of mine who was going into the priesthood he said you know what Janelle ask God to call you to the religious life and to sincerely ask him like Lord please call me to the religious life and so I did that and and I remember having so much peace and knowing that my life could be beautiful as a religious sister and so I did do a few come and sees and um it was during that time that I realized that I was still in love with Ken and I had to go deal with that and here we are baby number eight just around the corner so um anyhow what what St alons says he says that your parents have loved you for 20 or 30 years or more but God has loved you from all eternity and I just thought that was so beautiful because it's true you know like as parents we even as parents we might have a hard time letting go of our children but like why would we be afraid to give our child up to the one who has loved them first and who has loved them most and um yeah so when I think about our children and on my hope for them I I do hope that they and this is typical for parents you know you want them to have a good education to have a good job to have a good marriage you know those kind of things but my first thought really does go to I want them to live God's will for their life I am not hoping that they I replicate my life in them I don't don't want that for them uh I've been doing service within the church in the areas of evangelization now for uh 25 years I'm not looking to replicate that in my children I want them to follow God's will for their life and should it be in an active service in the church praise God should it be that they get married praise God and should it be that they are blessed to C be called to the religious life or priesthood praise God but that's what I want want for our children that they unite their Wills to the will of God another thing that's really kind of stirred this up in me is I've been listening to um the recording from ascensions presents Classics I think that's what the podcast is called and they're doing they they did a recording of St Teresa's a story of a soul and uh it's just so beautiful to listen to her story and how like at such a young age she desired religious life and all like all of her siblings actually all entered the convent and I just find that so remarkable whereas it's like now if somebody enters a conent it's kind of the exception whereas then it was kind of almost maybe more of the norm or more acceptable or more appealing I'm not sure what the difference is between our society and our cultures now well ours has been described as a culture of death by PA the second I mean that's kind of a marked difference before maybe it wasn't like that culture of death tends to kill vocations yes yeah okay that's not really a laughing matter but okay yeah we do live in a different time but I just think it it it the the call to the religious life should not be any less more beautiful and then that that family that serves as as an example to us now like what is happening now is not normal it's disordered to have so little vocations to religious life and priesthood that's a that's a disorder this is not not good um I mean the Catholic faith is the fullness of our Salvation if we truly believe that we want to live that and we want to help other people live that all right so those are my quotes So I do have a quote for you from St Alphonsus and why did he come he came in order that man might know how much God loved him and that thus out of gratitude at least he might love him in return even the beasts when they show us affection make us love them and why then are we so ungrateful towards a God who descends from Heaven to Earth to make us love himSt Alphonsus is reminding us of one reason that Jesus came into the world that he would win our hearts that he would gain our love I I I find it interesting that he makes this analogy between uh what does he call it beasts we have some beasts in our house they're called cats there's three of them and I know that we've mentioned them before I never ever wanted to be one of those people people who talk about their pets but I love how the cats make it into your so much there is a point to this because I am not a pet person You' you've heard that before the the kids like the cats I think Janelle loves the cats as well I actually they I've grown fond of them yeah yes they they are outdoor cats but here's the situation in Saskatchewan right now in Winter it gets cold so we had a night a little while ago hovering around -30 celsus I'm not sure what that is in Fahrenheit but it's cold really c um and all of a sudden people's hearts start getting warmed up to these cats who have I made a nice little cat house for them in the winter we got Bales we got something off of Amazon they have a heated they're looked after but somehow they ended up in the boot room we have a side little boot room and um they were allowed to warm up in there for a few hours and the kids are allowed to play with them in there for a few hours and it's interesting how these cats just kind of warm them up to you they kind of purr in your arms they win your affection and what happens then your will is bended to them and you give into them and they end up in your bootroom and eventually for some people they're bed that's not going to be us but God so forget the crude analogy but St alonsus is saying like even beasts warm up to men for what purpose to gain their affection so how much more affection should we give God who is perfect all loving all knowing who took on the our Humanity to save us from sin to save us for sunship we have to realize the default position for Humanity is damnation and God intervened into this taking on our likeness in every way but sin to save us from our sin but saving us in in such a generous Way by dying the most torturous death on the cross reserved for criminals he he could have done it another way I know in another videos uh I think with Father Christino I quoted St alonsus who said what God might have done in a drop he did with a stream meaning with streams of blood his whole self he wins US he didn't have to do it this way for what purpose does God show this excess of love but to win our hearts that's the whole point he wants to win us and so as we're inching in to the Feast of the Nativity we have to remember that the Incarnation the word becoming flesh Jesus coming to us as a baby is to win us so the question is will we allow our hearts to be conquered by his love by his tenderness and

gentleness let's pray oh infinite goodness I love thee and I Repent of all the injuries I have done thee would that I could die of Sorrow for them Oh my Jesus give me love let me not live any longer ungrateful for the affection thou Hast borne me I am determined to love thee always give me holy perseverance oh Mary Mother of God God and my mother do thou obtain for me from thy son the grace to love him always even unto death amen